The unrecognized Bedouin areas in Israel are Palestinian villages in the Naqab and the Galilee, which the Israeli government does not recognize as legal communities. Approximately half of the Bedouin citizens of Israel live in 39-45 such villages.
The unrecognized villages are ineligible for municipal services such as connection to the electrical grid, water mains or trash-pickup.
Since 1948, Israel has followed a policy of concentrating the Bedouin, who have lived there long before the establishment of the state of Israel, in Israeli-built townships and relocating them from their villages to these urban areas. The reason of this policy is to free the land for other purposes like reforestation or Jewish development.
Homes in the villages have been subject to systematic demolition by the Israeli authorities and the unrecognized villages are not precisely marked on any commercial maps.
The Palestine Monitor went to visit one village, which represents a clear example of how the Israeli government violates human rights and minorities’ rights in those communities.